Immunophenotyping: Application to Safety Assessment.

A continuing education course entitled "What You Always Wanted to Know About Immunotoxicology in Pharmaceutical Development…But Were Afraid to Ask" was offered at the Society of Toxicologic Pathology (STP) 36th annual symposium in Montreal. This article summarizes some key points made during the presentation dedicated to immunophenotyping. It describes how clusters of differentiation (CDs) are well-defined antigens used to characterize cell subsets, and how lymphocyte subsets in humans and different rodent and nonrodent species can be defined by detection of various combinations of CDs. It provides an overview of immunophenotyping study design considerations and applications to safety assessment.